Eastern Continent, a remote mountain village in Ancient Fish Country.
June 18th, this summer is particularly hot. The sun is scorching hot and unbearable, especially in the hour or two after lunch. The sun seems to be stripping off several layers of skin before it stops.
Ordinary people naturally stay at home to cool off, gnaw on watermelons and swing cattail leaf fans to avoid the heat. But in this weather, a group of children still braved the scorching sun and walked out of their homes and walked towards the village with excited expressions.
Half a mile beyond the village head is a large melon field planted by people from neighboring villages. The purpose of these children today is very clear - to steal melons.
The melons in June have grown very large and attractive. The melons at this time are the most hydrated and the most delicious. They are all children of Mojia Village, and every family has an acre and a half of melon land. But they don’t have one and a half acres of melon land.
Not satisfied with simply eating melons, the unique naughtiness of teenagers makes them even more keen to "destroy" other people's crops.
Think about it, splitting the melon rind wantonly in a huge melon patch, gnawing at most of the watermelon as if washing your face, and throwing away the ones you can't eat. Not to mention that kind of style, it gives a great sense of accomplishment.
Of course, this kind of sense of accomplishment that comes from disaster cannot be obtained from one's own melon field.
The laughter of the urchins broke through the unique silence under the scorching sun. There were about ten of them, the oldest was thirteen years old, and the youngest was only five years old.
The eldest child walking in front had a bird's nest-like mess of hair on his head and a pair of bare feet with a few veins exposed on his feet. He was the tallest among the group and was also extremely strong. The children
They all call him Brother Hu Zi. The look on his face shows that he is the leader of these people.
"Brother Huzi, where do you think we should go to pick melons today?" A little boy of only seven or eight years old sniffed his nose and raised his head.
"Go to Widow Zhang's house. Yesterday, my cow accidentally ate one of her melons. She tied my cow to her house for more than three hours, which made me look for it for a long time. Not to mention, she also went to my house to complain.
My dad beat me up hard last night." Huzi pouted and said harshly. At such a young age, there was a fierce light in his eyes.
The boss's words are equivalent to orders, and the children will basically not have the slightest objection.
"Okay!" Several children waved their wooden sticks and agreed happily.
But at this moment, a little boy with deep dimples on both sides of his face made an objection.
"Brother Huzi, let's not go. If Widow Zhang finds out, she will definitely not let us go. By then, our father will definitely beat us to death." The little boy worried.
"Don't worry, Fei Fei. At this time, Widow Zhang must be enjoying the cool weather at home, and she won't come." Huzi smiled and patted the little boy on the shoulder.
"But what if she is guarding the melons in the melon shed?"
The little boy who spoke was named Mo Feifan, who was only ten years old. Because he had deep dimples on both faces, he looked particularly cute when he spoke.
Huzi rolled his eyes and didn't look worried at all: "If Widow Zhang is here, we can run away. She can't run away from us anyway!"
"Hehe..." Several friends who were traveling with him grinned. Mo Feifan was really timid.
"If you don't go, I won't take you to play!" Huzi raised his head high and called the urchins to go to the other side of the woods, Widow Zhang's melon patch.
Mo Feifan said nothing and lowered his head quietly, acquiescing. After his friends all left, he found a shady place and counted ants and drew circles with branches.
Not long after, seven unknown strangers appeared in Mo Feifan's field of vision. The reason why they were strangers was because their attire was so strange. On a hot day, all seven of them were black.
They were dressed in black pants, black boots, and even wore a black gauze hat on their heads. It was hard to imagine how they could endure such scorching weather.
Mo Feifan looked at them intently, completely attracted by the strange appearance of the other person. He was looking at the "weirdos". The "weirdos" felt Mo Fan's gaze, stopped and looked at the child in front of them.
After a while, a weird man in black who was walking at the front spoke first. The man shouted to Mo Feifan without any courtesy: "Hey, little bastard, do you know if there are any big graves nearby?"
The sudden voice startled Mo Feifan. As a child who had never seen the world, his first impression was that these people were bandits. Although he had never seen real bandits, he had heard adults say that bandits slaughter people.
I grew up with stories about the village. Yes, these people should be bandits.
Although he was scared to death, little Mo Feifan was very smart. He blinked his smart eyes, stretched out his little finger, and pointed in the opposite direction to the cemetery in the back mountain: "Go that way, uncle."
While talking, Mo Feifan kept chanting in his heart, "The bandits leave quickly, the bandits leave quickly, the bandits don't kill us."
Children's words are unbridled, this is how the world describes children's innocence. The weirdo in black did not expect that such an innocent-looking child would actually lie to them.
The weirdos whispered for a while and then left in a hurry. Because of the distance, Mo Feifan did not hear the specific content of their conversation clearly, but simply heard the words "corpse raising", "treasure" and "weapon".
Just based on these few words, Mo Feifan couldn't think of anything at all. The only thing he could be sure of was that these people were definitely not good people. After thinking about it, Mo Feifan felt that he must tell Brother Hu Zi and the adults about this immediately and let them
Call the shots.
Just as he was thinking about it, his body was already moving, and his short legs were fluttering towards Widow Zhang's melon patch. Before he could take a few steps, his little friend ran over to her.
"Run, we've been discovered." Before Mo Feifan could speak first, Huzi shouted from a distance.
Mo Feifan stepped forward and said, "Brother Huzi, I have something to tell you..."
"Stop talking now and run." No matter what he said, the tiger stepped on the dust with his big feet, as if he was chased away by an old wolf. The children followed behind, not running too slowly. They were very anxious.
Mo Feifan had no choice but to follow in the footsteps of his companions.
Although these urchins were young, they were as light as swallows and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
After waiting for someone to run away for a long time, the middle-aged widow Zhang ran out panting. This crazy running made her feel discouraged. Seeing that she could no longer catch up, she panted like an ox.
He bent down and cursed loudly: "Short-lived devil, don't run away. If you dare to steal my melons, your life will be short-lived if you steal my melons! I'm going to tell your parents!"
Although she didn't see clearly which family the child belonged to, her scolding was not ambiguous at all, and she used all the ugly words.
When the voices behind them were too weak to be heard, the children stopped, and one by one they fell on their butts, or bent over and gasped for air.
"Brother Huzi... I just... saw a group of people wearing black clothes. They looked like bandits." Mo Fan was out of breath, lowered his head and said to Huzi.
When Huzi heard about the bandits, he suddenly thought: "What...what...bandits, bandits, where did the bandits come from?"
"Just now, when you went to steal melons." Mo Feifan made hurried gestures without even taking a breath.
When the others heard the word bandit, they all turned their little heads towards Mo Feifan. Some were worried, some were confused, and most of all, they were afraid.
Mojia Village is a small mountain village that is not wealthy. Although the adults often tell stories about bandits massacring the village, none of the children present have ever seen it with their own eyes.
A child of the same age as Mo Feifan couldn't help but ask: "How do you know they are bandits? You have never seen them before."
Mo Feifan recalled: "They all had knives on their bodies, very long knives."
The child said: "Is anyone with a knife a bandit? My father also has a knife, and his knife is used to chop firewood. My mother also has a knife, and her knife is used to cut braised pork."
When the 'braised pork' was served, the child swallowed his saliva unconsciously.
"Yes, yes, Mo Feifan must be bragging." Many young people agreed. In their hearts, they strongly rejected big bad guys like bandits.
"No, no, I don't. Those kind of knives are very long, and if someone is that tall, they must be bandits." Mo Feifan gestured repeatedly, trying to convince them.
Although many people doubt Mo Feifan's words, many people still believe him.
Huzi is the leader of this group of people. Mo Feifan knows that the best way to make everyone believe in him is to let Huzi stand on his side. He walked to the hesitant Huzi and said
: "Brother Huzi, let's let the adults fight the bandits. It will be really fun if they fight in front and we follow behind."
He was twelve or thirteen years old, which is the age when youth is frivolous and his brain is hot. He just ran this suggestion over in his mind, and then decided decisively to play this "killing game".
"Okay, let's go fight the bandits. We'll call the bandits right away." Huzi looked around at everyone like a little general and said, "Let's go home right away and call the adults over. We'll go chase the bandits."
"Yeah."
"Okay, Brother Huzi."
"...."
The naughty boys who just said they didn't believe in bandits actually all sided with Mo Feifan after hearing what they said. It was as if the argument just now was not his own.
This is the power of the leader.
The children didn't waste any time and ran back to Mojia Village with their short legs fluttering.
In the sky, a large black cloud came from nowhere, covering up the scorching sun. The sun was getting better and it was not that hot anymore. Many adults in the village left their homes and went to the fields.
After Huzi arranged for the other children to find their parents, he did not go home. Instead, he followed Mo Feifan directly to the latter's home.
Hu Zi Niang passed away early, and there was only one father in the family. He often called his father, Old Guy. The old guy was an alcoholic and drank frequently. He should not have sobered up at this time. He knew that if he woke up the old guy,
My butt will probably be spanked in two.
Mo Feifan's father is Mo Tie, and he is a blacksmith. At this time, everyone else has gone to work in the fields, and he usually stays at home, lighting a fire and forging iron.
"Fortunately, dad is here." Mo Feifan said thankfully in his heart.
The two of them hurriedly ran in from outside the house and saw Mo Tie shirtless, swinging a hammer to hit iron, his red face covered with sweat. The years had carved wrinkles on his face, because he often
Due to exposure to fire, his skin is darker than that of ordinary people.
"Dad, there are bandits, there are bandits." Mo Feifan said in a panic.
"Yeah, Uncle Tie, I saw it too. They have very long knives, knives for killing people." Huzi didn't really see the bandits. He just felt that if two people said this, the credibility would be greater.
As soon as Huzi finished speaking, Mo Feifan said: "Yes, I was eating melons. They asked me where we had a cemetery here, and I pointed him in a fake direction."
"Uncle, you must take someone to take a look. They are coming to dig our ancestral graves soon."
The two of them were chattering, one was talking to the other, and there was fear between the lines.
Mo Tie didn't take what the two men said to heart. If bandits really came, why would they dig graves? They would go directly to the village to burn, kill and loot. Needless to say, these two boys must be naughty and have nothing to do.
He was just making fun of himself. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and waved to them: "Go, go, don't disturb your father's work. What kind of bandits are you guys making up? Children have nothing to do, just go and have fun."
..."
After that, he swung the hammer again and started hitting it with a clanging sound.
Seeing that his father didn't believe him at all, Mo Feifan on the other side was really anxious.